Pop Buzz UK

Oh God, here we go again, the Paul ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne story has gone public again, this time with the former England footballer being sectioned under the mental health act, after being arrested at a hotel in Gateshead.

It seems not a few months can go by without some story or event happening in the life of Gazza, and drag his name, kicking and screaming, back in to the media.

For those that are too young to remember, Paul Gascoigne was one of the most talented soccer players England has ever known, and when he was on form, for both his various clubs, and country, he was up there with the best in the world.

Unfortunately, he was also very highly strung, and didn’t seem to be able to switch off between games. When he was injured just after signing for Lazio in a career making move to Italy, he descended in to a downward spiral of boozing which meant the second half of his career never matched up to the first. Basically, he had a touch of the George Bests.

This latest twist to the saga that is his life, started after he stayed at a hotel near his home town of Newcastle to recuperate from a hip operation.

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It seems the marriage between Katie Price aka Jordan, and Peter Andre isn’t the dream that they make out it is in public. In fact, things got so bad at one point that the big breasted model actually contemplated suicide.

Jordan and Australian pop singer (former) Peter Andre famously got together and fell in love after both being stars on I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here in 2004. They then got married, and had a child together, but despite acting in public as if life were 100% rosy, behind the scenes was another matter entirely.

The revelations have have come out as a result of Katie Price finally writing her long awaited (although not by me) autobiography titled Jordan: Pushed To The Limits. I’m guessing the title refers to her mental well-being rather than her bra cups, but I could be wrong.

The News Of The World newspaper has printed some exclusive previews from the book, and it reveals quite a bit of anguish for the couple over the past few years.

Firstly, after having the couple’s first baby together, Junior Savva Andreas in 2005, Jordan suffered from post natal depression, which drove her to thoughts of suicide.

She struggled to bond with Junior, and eventually ended up in The Priory clinic and was prescribed anti-depressants.

Then after going home again, she went completely off sex, and refused all of Andre’s sexual advances. I can’t say I blame her, as he is a creepy guy, but then again, I didn’t marry him did I.

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It looks as though the divorce battle currently being fought at the Royal Courts of Justice in London is set to continue on to a second week, with no sign of any divorce settlement being offered.

The messy break up, and ensuing divorce battle between Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills finally neared its end this past week, when they both finally showed up to court to thrash out a settlement, but after five days of behind the scenes talks, no deal is anywhere near forthcoming.

Both the 65 year old McCartney and the 40 year old Mills have refused to talk to the press while the hearing has been continuing. Mills, in a move which further reflects her mental state, has been representing herself, while McCartney has an expensive legal team.

A settlement is expected to be made before too long, but it seems neither Mills or McCartney is willing to budge an inch from their long held positions.

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I’m as much a fan of the Carry On series of films as the next man, having grown up with the repeats of them every Sunday evening on television, but I’m not sure how I feel about the possible return of the series, and who is being lined up to appear in it.

It seems that a new film is being planned, called ‘Carry On To The Next Round’, and comedian Russell Brand, along with Girls Aloud singer Sarah Harding are just two of the big names being lined up to star in it.

For those who don’t know, the Carry On films were bawdy, rude, and slapstick movies which basically revolved around trying to fit as much sexual innuendo in to a 90 minute film as possible.

The series did very well during the 1960s and 1970s, with the ever present cast of people like Sid James, Hattie Jacques, Charles Hawtrey, Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor. Although they were low budget parodies, us Brits used to love them… simple times.

The 1980s brought with it a whole new generation of people, and with Margaret Thatcher leading the country, and yuppies ruining it, the clamour for cheap and cheerful laughs came to an end, and so did the series.

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Daniel Radcliffe is the star of Harry Potter, no hang on, he IS Harry Potter, and so is one of the most eligible bachelors in the UK right now.

In fact, Prince William himself is probably the only young man more in demand. So there’ll be cheers around the world to the news that Radcliffe has split up from long term girlfriend Laura O’Toole.

Radcliffe is 18, and worth about £20 million at least, with the promise of a further £25 million from the final two (or could it be three) Harry Potter films, so as well as being a good looking guy, he’s minted in to the bargain. Quite a catch then.

Unfortunately, it seems him and O’Toole just couldn’t make it work between them.

The couple met during the West End production of Equus at the beginning of last year. Radcliffe was playing the lead role of Alan Strang, while O’Toole was the understudy for the part of Alan’s girlfriend in the play.

Despite Laura being four years older than Radcliffe at 22, or maybe because of it, they fell for each other quickly, and started seeing each other. The play ended in May, but the pair were spotted enjoying each others company for at least six months afterwards.

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Well okay, fourth favourite son after John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, but still, it’s news.

Ringo Starr was born and brought up in Liverpool before joining The Beatles and seeing his whole world turned upside down. Obviously with money, came the opportunity to leave Liverpool, and head off in to the sunset, which of course, all four of them did.

But wait, what’s this I see? Ringo has a new album to promote and so all of a sudden starts playing on his Liverpool roots again, and even turns up to perform at the city’s Capital of Culture launch.

The whole of Liverpool, glad to see the return of one of their local heroes, obviously unfurled the red carpet for him, and gave him the kind of welcome Liverpool is renowned for, although I gather Ringo got to keep his wheels, and his teeth, intact.

While playing the gig at St. Georges Hall, he even went as far as telling the crowd that he was close to returning to live in the city, and wanted to return to his home town. Which went down great, except that he was lying though his teeth.

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Not down together again, no that just be a bit too weird at this late stage in the game. No, it finally looks like Paul ‘Macca’ McCartney and Heather Mills (formerly McCartney) may be ready to talk about an out of court divorce settlement, and therefore do away with the need for a lengthy, drawn out, expensive and media frenzied High Court battle.

The former Beatles singer is rumoured to have made several phone calls to his former, estranged wife, and had conversations ahead of their five day hearing in February.

Macca is thought to be more keen on an out of court settlement now that Mills is thought to be representing herself. She split with her lawyers from legal firm Mishcon de Reya last year.

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Who would have thunk it? The Queen, yes that dear old 80 year old woman who somehow manages to get her face on our stamps, is a closet gamer, and enjoys a bit of Wii every now and again.

According to reports this week, she became fascinated with the Nintendo Wii console after seeing her grandson William playing with the one he received from on-off girlfriend Kate Middleton for Christmas. So she did what any self respecting grandmother and pensioner would do, and had a go.

The game in question was Wii Sports, and she was said to specifically enjoy the ten pin bowling mini game.

According to Blorge, a royal insider told tabloid news reporters that:

“When she saw William playing a game after lunch at Sandringham she thought the Nintendo looked tremendous fun and begged to join in. His only difficulty now is prising it away from the Queen’s clutches. She showed all the signs of becoming a Nintendo addict.�

I just can’t see this happening so it’s either made up entirely or an invention by Nintendo to keep their console in the news.

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Tonight should have seen the launch of the latest series of Celebrity Big Brother, but due to the race rows which blighted last year, that has now been replaced by Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack.

The new format launches tonight at 9pm on E4, and features 12 housemates between the ages of 18 and 21.

The celebrity part comes from various celebrity guests who will play the part of Big Brother, and going on the most recent reports, also play an active role in the show itself.

I previewed the show in full a few weeks ago, but since then some new details have been revealed, and some definite changes have been made to the original format.

First of all we have the 12 housemates, all young, all gifted, and all chosen to argue and fight in the same way as every normal Big Brother housemate is.

We have seven boys, and five girls, which includes circus performers, a boxer, a beauty queen, an entrepreneur, a racing driver and a politician.

Some of the celebrities have also been revealed, with the show kicking off under the guidance of Little Britain star Matt Lucas. Others to be given a role include art critic Brian Sewell and comedians Jimmy Carr and Joan Rivers.

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Amy Winehouse may be about to be made a suspect in the trial fixing plot which her husband Blake Fielder-Civil already finds himself in jail for. If this is the case, and she gets found guilty in a future trial, she could end up facing life in prison.

Fielder-Civil was arrested back in November for the alleged plot to pervert the course of justice. Along with another man, he is accused of trying to persuade a man he allegedly beat up, from giving evidence at the trial.

The police case revolves around a sum of £200,000, which was allegedly offered to the victim for him to withdraw his complaint, and fly out of the country instead.

It’s that large sum of money which is where Winehouse herself becomes involved. The police seized mobile phone records, bank details and computer software when they raided the couple’s house in Camden, London, and this is thought to contain evidence that Winehouse was involved in the plot.

Although it was thought that Winehouse was just being regarded as a witness, the News Of The World claims that her status could change to suspect this week.

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You’ll have probably heard by now that there is no Celebrity Big Brother this year, mainly down to the racism that occurred during last year’s show, when Shilpa Shetty became the subject of abuse from Jade Goody and her cohorts.

But fret not, because ready to take its place is a new spin off called Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack.

The show will begin at 8pm on January 3rd 2008, being simulcast on both E4 and Channel 4. The live launch show will be 90 minutes long, and hosted by Dermot O’Leary, in his last Big Brother assignment.

So how does it differ from the normal Big Brother? Well, as the name implies, instead of having the anonymous Big Brother producers as the voices of Big Brother, that role will be taken by various celebrities, who will basically run the house in turn for a certain amount of time.

Unlike normal, they won’t be just a presence there to help the house mates, instead being able to set random tasks, set their own rules, and punish the contestants they choose to.

As for the house mates themselves, unlike the usual summer Big Brother, we won’t have a random mixture of ages, and people thrown together to cause arguments.

Instead Channel 4 have hand picked a group of 18-21 year olds, all of whom have a special skill, or talent, which puts them head and shoulders above the rest of the population (and on a different evolutionary level than your average Big Brother contestant!)

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The Spice Girls long awaited reunion (or is it goodbye) tour around the world kicked off in Vancouver, Canada last week, and was feted as a triumph, with very little going wrong.

But, it seems that it’s not all going so smoothly behind the scenes, with arguments and in fighting blighting the comeback tour so far.

The News Of the World’s Rav Singh was given exclusive access behind the scenes of the rehearsals in preparation for the tour, and reports all five of the girls were at each other’s throats in the build up to the record breaking concert run.

He reports the following as having taken place:

“Mel B shouted at Geri for mucking up the dance routine for Stop. She yelled: “You’ve got to keep it together, if you spent more attention on your routines then it would be right.”

“Posh had a pop at Mel B for dancing out of time to Spice Up Your Life. She snapped: “Next time we all have to stand in line and get it right.”

“The others rounded on Posh for spending too much time chatting with pals Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes when they turned up to watch rehearsals with baby Suri.”

There’s no surprises there really, as the attention, and expectation on the five girls must be incredible at this stage. Even though they are all older, and (potentially) wiser, you can’t pile stress on people and expect them not to clash with people close to them.

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She may have only come third in this year’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here, but Cerys Matthews has probably emerged from the jungle with the most chance of making a million on the back of it, and she’s got a new boyfriend out of the experience too.

On Friday night, the latest series of the massively popular reality show, hosted by Ant & Dec, came to an end, and old school entertainer Christopher Biggins emerged victorious, just scalping ex supermodel Janice Dickinson to the title of jungle King or Queen.

Apart from the always present tension and arguments, the biggest story, and one which certainly kept me interested throughout the 2 weeks the show was on ITV, was the love affair between Cerys Matthews and Marc Bannerman.

They had a connection and a mutual attraction as soon as they met, and their experience in the Australian outback seemed to draw them closer together.

Almost mimicking the romance between Peter Andre and Katie Price from a few years ago, the more time the couple spent together, the more interested in a romance they got. The problem was Bannerman already had a girlfriend on the outside, a long term one who he lived with no less.

He was the first celebrity to be booted out, partly because the public wanted blood, and partly because they thought of him as a bit of a love rat, which he was to a certain extent. But, you also can’t help falling in love, and that seems to be exactly what happened on this occasion.

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Heat magazine sparked controversy last week by giving away 50 stickers with each issue, one of which showed Katie Price’s (aka Jordan’s) son Harvey with goggle eyes, and the words “Harvey wants to eat me!” on it.

For those who don’t know, Katie Price, now married to that pansy Peter Andre after they met on ‘I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here‘, had Harvey, before finding out that he suffered from a rare genetic disorder called septo-optic dysplasia, which causes him to gain weight. This sticker is taking the piss out of Harvey’s weight, and so by default is also taking the piss out of his disability.

The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) received 56 complaints over the sticker set, which also included other comedy stickers such as a picture of Britney Spears next to the headline “Mum of the year,” and a picture of Victoria Beckham asking “Will you fucking smile?”

The magazine has apologised by issuing the following statement:

“We now accept the decision to include this sticker was a mistake and we recognise that it has caused offence, not only to Katie and Peter Andre, but to a number of readers. Immediately following publication, we apologised unreservedly to Katie and Peter. We wish to apologise publicly to Harvey, Katie and Peter for any embarrassment and distress caused.”

This isn’t enough for Katie though, as she has promised to complain to the PCC about the magazine.

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David Beckham is currently in Australia, and training at the Olympic Stadium ahead of a friendly against Sydney FC tomorrow.

He and his L.A. Galaxy team mates today had their first training session in front of new manager Rudd Gullit, although the crowd watching the training session was a lot less than the 80,000 expected to attend the full match tomorrow.

Beckham has suffered from multiple injury woes while he’s been at L.A. galaxy, joining with an ankle injury, and seeing his first season with the team plagued by flare ups, meaning he only managed to appear 5 times for his new US soccer team.

Beckham had a kick around with local football stars n a pontoon close to the Sydney Opera House and Bridge, where he kicked footballs, rugby balls and played a bit of Australian rules football too.

He didn’t seem to show any signs of having injury troubles, although earlier in training he did seem concerned about his left ankle. Gullit was convinced Beckham would be playing all 90 minutes of the match though, and is relishing the chance to see all of his players in action for the first time.

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